Friday, April 26, 2013

I have to confess, I have not fought as hard as I could for the women that choose abortion. My focus has been mostly on the babies in the womb, fighting to give them a chance at life, a chance to join us living, breathing beings on the journey set before us. While some might view the fight for the baby as the fight for women, that is not always the case and today I declare it is time to fight equally for both the mother and the child. The spin and the lies used to entice women to seek abortions have crippled many women reproductively. The Gosnell trial is proof positive of that. I am angry that those who support abortion are using the trial to continue the spin that in urban communities, reproductive health is a matter of black and poor women’s lack of access. I am angry that they are using the trial as a commercial for Planned Parenthood, still seeking to drive women towards the abortionists’ knife. So today I am upping the ante and fighting equally for the women and their babies, especially black women since they are the target of the abortion giants. I hereby put Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the National Abortion Federation and all the other rabid abortion supporters on notice - Black women are not dumb, nor are we stupid. We are not some monolithic group of imbeciles that will continue drinking from the potion concocted to control the black birth rate. Enough is enough.

As the trial of late term abortionist Kermit Gosnell progresses the testimony is appalling, revealing a base mind that subjected women and babies to such horrors that they are almost unbelievable. Here we are in the twenty-first century reading about an abortionist that practiced segregation, separate but equal waiting rooms for people of his own race. He thought so little of black women that he allowed unlicensed personnel to medicate and treat them during abortion process, but ‘treated’ white women himself. The center was so filthy that it reeked of cat urine, blood and a variety of other unidentifiable odors. His practice was so demonic that he and the workers in his center thought it not strange that baby feet lined the shelves encased in specimen jars while many other baby body parts were ‘bagged’ and thrown into the basement where rats waited to feast. It was not thought strange that labor was induced and babies were “delivered” to then have their spinal cords “snipped” by the unlicensed personnel including one that said it was “raining fetuses and blood” at times. They thought it not strange that baby body parts so filled the pipes they had to be unclogged two to three times a week.

Adding insult to injury, it is clear that Planned Parenthood knew of the issues with Gosnell’s center long before the February 18, 2010 FBI/DEA raid:
“Steinberg said that when Gosnell was in practice, women would sometimes come to Parenthood for services after first visiting Gosnell's West Philadelphia clinic, and would complain to staff about the conditions there. We would always encourage them to report it to the Department of Health," Steinberg said as she sat with Steinem before Tuesday's events” http://bit.ly/Z9nIKQ

The Commonwealth of PA, the National Abortion Federation nor Planned Parenthood did anything to warn women about the condition of Gosnell’s abortion center: “Despite his various efforts to fool her, the evaluator from NAF readily noted that records were not properly kept, that risks were not explained, that patients were not monitored, that equipment was not available, that anesthesia was misused. It was the worst abortion clinic she had ever inspected.” (page16, PA Grand Jury Report). Instead they have used this tale as a commercial for Planned Parenthood: “Of the Gosnell trial, Steinem added: "It makes more clear why you need Planned Parenthood."

Also, they have used this case to advocate for access to Medicaid while blaming the prolife community: “The evidence suggests a number of factors led women to Gosnell: Medicaid's refusal to cover most abortions; the scarcity of providers in Pennsylvania; fear of violent protesters; and a right-wing culture that has stigmatized abortion.”

Pro-abortion forces are working overtime to push America toward the belief that Gosnell is an aberration, an exception to the standard of providing quality medical care. But the facts reveal that belief is the furthest from the truth. There are many more abortionists that are applying Gosnellian tactics: unlicensed personnel fudging ultrasounds to disguise the age of the baby, unlicensed personnel administering anesthesia (including propofol – the drug that killed Michael Jackson); lack of licensed personnel to monitor patients during recovery; reuse of instruments designed for one use only; numerous botched abortions that have left baby parts in the woman and most distressing perforating the uterus of the patient resulting in a complete hysterectomy and sometimes death.

Planned Parenthood surgical centers along with others all have many of these same conditions. In fact, two Planned Parenthood nurses in Delaware quit recently because they feared their licenses were being jeopardized. Another Planned Parenthood spokesperson, in Florida acknowledged there are as many as 1200 abortions that end in the baby being born alive. Alisa LaPolt Snow, went on to say "We believe that any decision that's made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician" suggesting they might not find the snipping procedure to be horrible at all since they would do nothing to aid the infant born alive. And just last year, Planned Parenthood’s idea of following “standard medical procedures and the law” resulted in the death of young Tonya Reaves after they perforated her uterus and left her laying in their center for more than five hours before seeking emergency care. By the time they sought medical help for her (which clearly their “doctor” failed to provide) it was too late and Tonya died a tortuous death because they did not care enough about her to get help immediately.

Enough! Women beware! Black women especially beware! It is time we sound the alarm and help women to know their health is at risk in these abortion chambers around the country. It is time we sound the alarm and let women know they may not come home from their “safe and legal” abortion. Remember Tonya Reaves, remember Janet Morbelli, remember Shirika Mayo, remember Semika Shaw, remember Laura Hope Smith. . . Remember the other 395 women that have died because they sought a safe, legal abortion. Sound the alarm! Women beware! Black women especially – beware!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

This morning I came across an article (Yes, let's be honest about Kermit Gosnell's abortion 'house of horrors') that quite frankly took my breath away and not because it was good. In fact I could not decide which emotion would win the day - anger, outrage, or disbelief. Using a picture of the Endangered Species billboard that I was involved with three years ago, the author wrote to persuade the reader that Gosnell was an exception, an aberration that people like me would use to create more laws to restrict abortion in America. She went on to make a series of outrageous statements, painting pro-lifers as terrorists while stating “The goal of "pro-life" activists isn't to draw attention to an illegal butcher in order to protect women and babies. The braying about Gosnell is a ploy to shame the media into covering the issue from the anti-abortion perspective, conflating the illegal procedures performed by Gosnell with safe, legal abortion”.

Jill Filipovic’s idea of honesty is to dismiss the mainstream media’s lack of coverage of one of the most horrific serial murder cases of this and the last century, suggesting that before the pro-life tweet fest that forced coverage,there was extensive coverage of his murderous ways. It does not matter to her that there was not. In fact, Gosnell's House of Horrors did not make the nightly news or page one until a week ago, the fifth week of his trial. Ms. Filipovic like many other abortion supporters, worships at the altar of abortion and at that altar it is easy to dismiss the reality that Gosnell took deliberate steps to destroy the lives of viable children while collecting their body parts as trophies he openly displayed throughout his shop of horrors. What has become clear through his trial is that he cared nothing for the women that paid a thousand or more dollars for his services or for the lives of the children he decapitated.

Jill’s type of honesty allows her to join Gosnell’s defense attorney in suggesting that poor, black and brown women should not expect mayo clinic standards in an urban area. As she brushes aside the reality that the medical standards of many abortionists leave women over-medicated, infected with various STD’s, and even dead, she chooses to spin the indoctrination that the issue faced by these poor, black and brown women was due to a lack of access to abortion and their inability to use Medicaid to pay for it. The last I looked, Gosnell made millions of dollars off of these poor, black and brown women, some paying almost two thousand dollars for the procedure. And there are many other abortionists across the country who are making millions such as the wife and daughter of an Atlanta abortionist that flaunt their wealth in every episode of Big Rich Atlanta. Much of what occurred at 3801 Lancaster is the standard of the abortion industry. Ms. Filipovic like the others that blindly support abortion at all costs, wants America to allow women to continue to be reproductively maimed, keeping abortionists free to shred babies into unholy confetti while providing substandard medical care.

I for one reject the idea that abortion is safe. Ms. Filipovic, on the other hand, believes that “Legal abortion in the United States is today one of the safest medical procedures around”. This, I say, is a lie that has been perpetuated by abortion supporters. I remember Tonya Reaves, who at the hands of Planned Parenthood’s Title X abortionist, was left to hemorrhage to death after her uterus was perforated. They did not seek emergency care for her for more than five hours - she did not have to die. I remember Shirika Mayo whose iron blood count was so low she should have been transfused instead of being given a second trimester abortion by a Planned Parenthood preferred provider, who punctured her uterus and took her life. I remember Jennifer Morbelli who was abandoned by her Title X abortionist when her amniotic fluid seeped into her blood sream. I remember Laura Hope Smith whose abortionist did not know CPR or have oxygen nearby to help resuscitate her after the procedure. These ladies deaths are the tip of the mountain of substandard care provided by many if not most of the abortionists in America.

The idea that abortion is “inaccessible … for low-income women, who are disproportionately women of color, and for rural women” is yet another lie that is being spun on the altar of abortion. Low-income women of color have long been targeted by the abortion industry. In fact, most of the surgical abortion centers of Planned Parenthood are located within a two mile walking radius of a Black or Latino neighborhood as documented by Protect Black Life's 2012 study. This is the same Planned Parenthood that wants America to believe their primary service gives “women the tools to both prevent unintended pregnancy and care for wanted children”.If she could find the abortion center to terminate the life of her child, she could find that same center to get the so called tools.

The Gosnell Case is the rule rather than the exception. The Gosnell case proves that the coat hanger of the past has put on a suit and can be found in abortion chambers around the country and that Ms. Filipovic is newsworthy. Pro-life laws did not create Gosnell, lack of enforcement of the laws did. May that never happen again.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Since the third week in March, there has been riveting, ghoulish and ghastly testimony about a Philadelphia abortionist named Kermit Gosnell, on trial for eight counts of murder. It is alleged he killed more than 100 babies by “snipping” their spinal cord to ensure “fetal demise” (his words). Despite a mainstream media blackout, the articles that can be found on the internet are chronicling testimony in terms that can only be deemed horrifying. Phrases like “It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”, “Literally, it is a beheading, it is separating the brain from the body”, “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” “she called aborted fetuses “specimens” because “it was easier to deal with mentally” are just a sampling of what the jury has heard since the trial began. As the prosecution and defense are weaving this tale, much of what is being heard is so ghoulish that it defies the imagination to believe this has been happening in any state in this nation. Yet, the Pennsylvania grand jury, legislators of the Commonwealth and the prosecuting attorney have documented evidence found at 3801 Lancaster that verifies it was happening and was only stopped when Gosnell was arrested. In fact, the arresting agents had to wait until he completed two or three abortions before they could take him into custody.

In addition testimony of staff of the center discloses tales of dirty instruments being used repeatedly without sanitation in between each use. There are tales of unlicensed staff not only performing abortions, but administering anesthesia to knock the woman out. They described incidences of fudging ultra sounds to disguise the gestational age of the baby and storage of aborted babies body parts on shelves and in refrigerators where staff kept their meals. Pictures from the “house of horrors” as Gosnell’s facility has been dubbed, showed operating tables with tears in them, rusted in part, surrounded by blood caked medical instruments. These reports are particularly disturbing because they are eerily similar to reports we are hearing in Georgia. However, we cannot tell you for sure what is true because the state of Georgia has taken no steps to enforce the laws on the books with regard to ambulatory surgical centers in this state. Nor has the state taken steps to shut down abortion centers when reported violations are found in one of only six licensed abortion facilities (the remaining twelve centers are unlicensed).

In Georgia, former staff of one abortion center described the reuse of instruments that had been soaked in a solution so many times that they were now straight rather than curved as they were when taken out if its packaging. These instruments, they report, should have only been used one time and the abortion center experienced a rash of staph infections that disappeared when the practice was stopped for a short period of time. They described tables that were duct taped and sometimes blood caked because they were not sanitized. Another center acknowledged to the state they were not sterilizing instruments according to their own protocol, much less to a medical standard that ensured sterilization. This facility in a follow up visit by the state, documented they performed thirty-five procedures in one six hour period, again demonstrating a failure to sterilize the operating arena between each procedure. State documents cite building code violations, including lack of a sprinkler system in a building where abortions are performed on the second floor.

Some unlicensed staff explained though they were only trained as medical technicians, they performed sonograms. Unlicensed staff routinely administered anesthesia, including propfol (the drug that killed Michael Jackson) to patients. Another report is that linen used during the surgical procedure usually are re-used and only laundered at the end of the week when staff took them home. Two abortionists were cited by the state - one for failing to meet normal standards of medical care when performing an abortion on a woman whose blood iron count was so low she should have received transfusions, and the other for performing second trimester abortions in an unlicensed facility. Both these abortionists only paid a nominal fine that in no way measured up to the harm inflicted.

The horror in Georgia is that twelve abortion centers have almost no government oversight and do not meet the Department of Community Health published regulations for ambulatory surgical centers (the Department of Community Health’s Rule 290-5-33-01 defines an “ambulatory surgical treatment centers” in this way: any institution, building or facility or part thereof devoted primarily to the provision of surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization, as provided under provisions of GA Code Section 88-1901). These centers have not been inspected nor provided standards to minimize injuries to patients. The six that are licensed are not inspected routinely and when the Department of Community Health does inspect and finds violations, there are no legal ramifications for the violators.

A Pennsylvania employee, when testifying reported that “ Under Governor Robert Casey, … the department inspected abortion facilities annually. Yet, when Governor Tom Ridge came in, the attorneys interpreted the same regulations that had permitted annual inspections for years to no longer authorize those inspections. Then, only complaint driven inspections supposedly were authorized. Staloski said that DOH’s policy during Governor Ridge’s administration was motivated by a desire not to be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions” http://bit.ly/10p91Dh. With all my heart I hope that this is not the stance of Governor Deal. I have reported before that Governor Deal’s spokesperson stated he is fully aware of our concerns. Yet he has taken no visible action to bring Georgia’s abortion centers into compliance with the laws that have been on the books for decades. I can only pray that he will soon be spurred into action so that none of the abortion centers here will grow to the level of horror of that center in Pennsylvania.

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